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Sunday 25 October 2009

Whats in a Name?

Growing up as i did, with so many people having the same names, it was difficult, to call each by his real name, and not end up getting mltiple replies. This happens with almost all of us. Thats where the magical words- nicknames come into picture. Most of us end up getting a nickname or two. I have got god knows how many nicknames! but the most prevailant is "Chinya". I guess every chinmay gets called chinya. its the easiest thing to do in marathi. get the first part of the name, and add a suffix -ya to it... so chinmay becomes chinya, manoj becomes manya, rahul becomes rahulya etc etc.

Sometimes nicknames are derived from surnames of a particular person like Joshi becomes Joshya. But more often than not, people are referred to by their surnames. I was almost exclusively called Datar in my school. My cousin, rather than being known as Rohan is known as Soman(Surname) all over.
On the other side of the coin are some weird people who call out by taking the first name, that too formally. Mr. Datar, Mr. Chinmay! i dont think ive ever responded to such things! calling by first name, is OK, but in a crowd may again cause confusion. so nicknames come in handy.

But there are some nicknames which stand out from the everyday, commonly used standard nicknames. Ive known people who have been called some extremely weird things. Things like Chhakkya, dhunganya, kullya! eww! imagine if we apply our preceding postulate of -ya to these words! imagine if some one was called Kullya, he could actually be Kulleshwar!

Some others are totally irrelevent, although more sobre. For some reason or another, people are given some weird nicknames, and surprizingly, they stick! I know some people like that. A friend of mine, Tejas, is called Bidya. another one, Amit is called all over as Bhamtya!Aadinath is called Chaddya! Even stranger is a guy called amey is called as Kadi!Another guy, Rohit is known as Kallu!

Recently, in college, a wave of two superb nicknames has spread. Madhura is now known all over as MadB. Hats off to the person who came up with that! its really different. And Virendra is now being called Veerbhadra!  some macho nickname! (credit for this goes to madb)

College nicknames stick forever i guess. I mean names like NPower, N95, Tatya, Lakshya, Mhais, Actiwate, Mhasoba,Butukya are hard to forget!( these are Neha, Neha, Tejas, Alok, Rohini, Gautam, Rao,Siddhi-Prachi)

Some pranksters, since their school days, have an audacity to even call out their teachers by nicknames. This was extremely prevailant in my school. We used to refer to teachers with names like  wally(short for Walrus), Yam(as in yamraj), Balyaa, Badhya, Hemu, Nago, Kaku etc etc.

Nicknames, i must say have become must! how do you address someone informally otherwise!! Creating them also brings out the creativity in a person! so people, instead of doing stupid things, start coming up with some good nicknames! u can start from me if you want!(and no chini-mini please! its extremely contradictary to what i am..)

6 comments:

  1. I have just comeacross one of the best creations of our very own Chinmay aka chinya, datar, chinimini…. Well nicknames indeed are such an integral part of our lives and we never even realise it!! After reading your excellent brief note even I can recall all my memories from the world of nicknames. Those were the old school days when actually nicknames came into existence in my life. Truly blessed by some genious work nicknames such as peke, vaddu, kamla, badra, lajjya, kamtein etc were born. All the stories behind these names just flash in my mind and am again sitting on my school bench waiting for just another prank (Me not being very sincere in school). But gone are those days and many new nicknames have dawned upon me. Some which make you laugh out for your entire lifetime and some which you cant even recall how they were made!! All the emotions and attachments to these names makes you feel much better.Some friends did like their nicknames while some did not and lead to fights. After all such things always happen and we find our true friends. We become so much accustomed to these nicknames that you even tend to forget their real names. But life without nicknames is incomplete and yes if there’s nothing to do in ife be innovative and come up with some amazing nicknames…

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  2. In the list of teacher's nicknames, you forgot Kabir Khan. :P
    And wtp is Mhasoba? You can't come up with nicknames in your post and suggest they've been there for a while.

    And no matter what you do, you'll always be Chini-mini (to be said in a falcetto) to us!

    One more thing, I think the credit for coming up with MadB goes to Mr. Aadhi Nath!

    :D

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  3. we have been calling you mhasoba when we want to make khufiya references about you since the first year!

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  4. No no, Parth came up with MadB..but credit goes to all of you for its epidemic spread!

    Nice post Chini-mini [:-P], although its frought with spelling mistakes [not good for your GRE aspirations] its a well-written succint post..you forgot Maakdu though..and Anya, and Ladies..

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  5. and i want to know who had come up with the nickname of N95!

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  6. actually thats shrouded in mystery... Dont remember who came up with it... but i know the reason behing it anyway.. u had 195 in CET So N for neha and 95 from CET marks = N95 ;)

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